froggers first season

[Jeremy S]

It's my first year trapping so I was anxious to get my traps out first day of the season. I am waiting to go after bobcat and beaver until deer season is over so I set up a mini-line on my rural acreage for raccoon to practice my set building skills and test the sensitivity of my triggers. I also wanted to make sure my supplies were in order so I would have everything in my toolbox when I'm in the field, not close to home.

Set building has been fun with the help of my sons. We're learning new tricks to speed up the process everyday. The reoccurring issue I've been having is mice stealing my bait. I'm in a heavily wooded area and I thought there might be less of them due to the amount of  predators around. I have four traps on five acres and every one has been hit by mice. When I see the bait has been taken I focus all my energy on catching the mice in the area before I re-bait the cage trap, even if it means putting out multiple mouse traps. This seems to help.

I've seen raccoons often in this area, and imagined they might be an easy catch. Was I wrong. I tried lots of different baits before I figured out what works here, which I can imagine will be the same for different animals in other habitats. I plan to run my mini-line for the rest of the week before I pull the traps, clean them, and wax them for the forest and hills. I'm liking the learning curve of diving into everything hand on and have found lots of useful help through stories and written contact of members on this forum. It's a great resource to have available.

[Jeremy S]

Possum #2

[Jeremy S]

1st racoon

[yankees2]

What area are you from?

[Jeremy S]

PM Sent.

[JJB11B]

1st racoon

Not to sound like a tree hugger but that little guy is kinda cute.

[jasnt]

Nice work frogger! Those traps look great! congrats on the coon

[Jeremy S]

Nice work frogger! Those traps look great! congrats on the coon

Thanks jasnt. Wish I could say I built the cages... I picked these up from F&T to save some time this year. I made a bunch of muskrat colony traps and after I saw how long it was going to take I figured it'd be easier to buy a few for my first season. They are heavy but should last a long time. I calculated out the price to build my own and it wasn't much cheaper.

[Turner89]

Nice work frogger

[-Trap_addicT-]

1st racoon

Not to sound like a tree hugger but that little guy is kinda cute.

I sure hope you're talking about the coon!

[jasnt]

Nice work frogger! Those traps look great! congrats on the coon

Thanks jasnt. Wish I could say I built the cages... I picked these up from F&T to save some time this year. I made a bunch of muskrat colony traps and after I saw how long it was going to take I figured it'd be easier to buy a few for my first season. They are heavy but should last a long time. I calculated out the price to build my own and it wasn't much cheaper.

building your own is quite Time consuming! And with anything a learning curve.  Looks like your starting to get those coon figured out. Good luck this year. Looking forward to tagging along

[Jeremy S]

Had this racoon this morning and she's missing a front paw.

[winslow]

Had this racoon this morning and she's missing a front paw.

won't be needing it now!

[Jeremy S]

I removed my raccoon sets from my property and set up a few cat sets in the woods today. They are all set in low-land reprod along side skid roads, and I experimented with a few different baits. This is an area I scout a lot and have seen bobcats and have them on trail cameras. It was a calm morning in the woods and I am excited to see if these produce in the next few weeks.

[Jeremy S]

It's been awhile since I posted here but my rookie year in trapping has been fairly uneventful since I've taken it to the hills. I figured out my traps catching some raccoon early in the season and figured if I waited out my sets long enough I should have been able to get a bobcat. I had my traps out along creeks near reprod early in the season for about twenty nights. A few of those nights the traps froze but I never had any bait taken so I assume it they were passed up. After that I took a bit of a break because I had roof problem on the house I needed to take care of in a hurry. Now it's nearing the end of the season so I figured I'd put in a solid effort to try to get a bobcat. I also have one beaver land set out that I can't get a beaver to commit to. The beaver pond is active with fresh peeled sticks everywhere. The pools are clear and I can see beaver scat at the bottom in their passages. I've been using a castor lure and apples to try to draw them into my cage. No luck so far. I finally put a camera on the set a few days ago so I should know if they are even coming around soon. As for my bobcat sets I have three that are dispersed over about 4 miles. All near swampy creek areas where I've either seen bobcats or got them on camera. I use meat bait, gland lure, eye attractant, and urine. I bust a lot of brush scouting for deer and honestly can't say I've ever found a cat toilet so maybe that's an issue. I did find an elk shed while setting one of my bobcat traps though so that was pretty cool. Even though I haven't connected yet it's been pretty awesome to have the help of members on here through PM and reading their stories. I've also read quite a bit on trapperman and plan to attend the rendezvous coming up. I feel that I'm figuring out new things daily and eventually I'll catch that cat I'm after. If nothing else it's a great excuse to be in the woods. I've attached a few photos of the sets and beaver pond. Any advice is always welcome.

[Jeremy S]

Here are a couple more.

[Humptulips]

a couple of comments on your sets:
You said the water was clear and fresh beaver cuttings everywhere. Are you really sure the beaver are there? Typically if there are active beaver the water behind a dam will be dirty from their work. Clear water is a bad sign unless maybe it is rocky and no mud to stir up.
Your bobcat sets are at least to my eye in poor habitat for bobcat. Too grown up, not very suitable for small game. Not saying a cat won't wonder through but certainly not as often as say an area with more small game. Probably was great about 15 years ago.

[Jeremy S]

a couple of comments on your sets:
You said the water was clear and fresh beaver cuttings everywhere. Are you really sure the beaver are there? Typically if there are active beaver the water behind a dam will be dirty from their work. Clear water is a bad sign unless maybe it is rocky and no mud to stir up.
Your bobcat sets are at least to my eye in poor habitat for bobcat. Too grown up, not very suitable for small game. Not saying a cat won't wonder through but certainly not as often as say an area with more small game. Probably was great about 15 years ago.

I guess maybe the beavers are not in the area anymore. The water is clear for sure. All my bobcat sets are within eyesight of a waterway. The creeks tend to run through 25 year old reprod, near fresh clearcuts, and also through small meadows. Should I maybe focus more on the younger clear cuts?

[Humptulips]

I would say yes. I would say 10 to 15 year old stuff would be better.

[Jeremy S]

Thanks Bruce.